Read Online Michelle Obama by David Colbert - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: David Colbert
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sitting on the corner of Michelle's desk while he and Michelle were having a conversation that obviously wasn't about business. From the doorway, she could see that Michelle, usually so focused, had finally encountered a distraction she liked.
You know what,
Carragher would think before knocking,
I'm going back to my office.
After each of these conversations, Carragher told Mundy, Michelle would mention to Carragher something new she'd just learned about Barack. "She had all these little facts about him," Carragher said. She remembered Michelle's amazement when telling Carragher, "I can't believe he's got a
white grandmother from Kansas!
"
"She was falling hard," Carragher told Mundy, "But always cool." In his memoir
The Audacity of Hope,
Barack recalled that it was hard to melt the ice. He was only at Sidley for the summer, so he didn't think much of Michelle's excuse that she was his adviser. "Come on," he said to her. "What advice are you giving me? You're showing me how the copy machine works. You're telling me which restaurants to try. I don't think the partners will consider one date a serious breach of firm policy." When she kept refusing, he said, "OK, I'll quit [the firm]. How's that? You're my adviser. Tell me who I have to talk to."
The more interested Michelle became, the more careful she was. He was going back to Massachusetts at the end of the summer to finish law school, right? Then no, thank you. But she could resist only so much. "Eventually, I wore her down," Barack wrote. "After a firm picnic, she drove me back to my apartment and I offered to buy her an ice cream at the Baskin-Robbins store across the street." It turned into an unplanned date. "We sat on the curb and ate our ice creams in the sticky afternoon heat, and I told her about working at Baskin-Robbins when I was a teenager and how it was hard to look cool in a brown apron and cap. She told me that for a span of two or three years as a child, she had refused to eat anything except peanut butter and jelly. I asked if I could kiss her."
There were secret dates afterwardâand at least one that wasn't secret. They bumped into a colleague at a movie theater. Michelle was embarrassed. But with friends outside of the law firm, she could finally open up. She called a friend from Harvard Law School, Verna Williams, to give her the news. "Guess what?" Michelle said. "I've got this great guy in my life. His name is Barack." She told Williams how it had happened, and she mentioned all the details about Barack that fascinated her. "It was clear she was pretty crazy about him." Williams remembered.
"HE WON'T BE AROUND FOR LONG"
With her family, Michelle didn't gush about Barack. She didn't share with them the things she had learned about his family, and his childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia, and his reputation at Harvard Law School. Almost shyly, she brought him to her parents' house for a family dinner. She was also setting him up to be tested. She wasn't going to sell him to her family beforehand. He had to present himself. Of course, if they didn't like him, that would be the end.
But her family had been through this before, so they had sympathy for Barack. "First impression was that he was smart, easygoing, good sense of humor," Craig remembered. "I thought, 'Too bad he won't be around for long.'" As he recalls, his parents felt the same way. "We gave it a month, tops. Not because there was anything wrong with him ... but we knew he was going to do something wrong, and then it was going to be too bad for him."
They weren't worried that Michelle might lose something special. Barack's unusual background and his education might have interested them, but Barack didn't talk about himself. They had no idea he had a white mother, and they wouldn't know for a long time. It wasn't a secret. He just never mentioned it. They didn't hear that he planned to run for a prestigious position at Harvard Law School, editor of the
Harvard Law Review,
which surely
You know what,
Carragher would think before knocking,
I'm going back to my office.
After each of these conversations, Carragher told Mundy, Michelle would mention to Carragher something new she'd just learned about Barack. "She had all these little facts about him," Carragher said. She remembered Michelle's amazement when telling Carragher, "I can't believe he's got a
white grandmother from Kansas!
"
"She was falling hard," Carragher told Mundy, "But always cool." In his memoir
The Audacity of Hope,
Barack recalled that it was hard to melt the ice. He was only at Sidley for the summer, so he didn't think much of Michelle's excuse that she was his adviser. "Come on," he said to her. "What advice are you giving me? You're showing me how the copy machine works. You're telling me which restaurants to try. I don't think the partners will consider one date a serious breach of firm policy." When she kept refusing, he said, "OK, I'll quit [the firm]. How's that? You're my adviser. Tell me who I have to talk to."
The more interested Michelle became, the more careful she was. He was going back to Massachusetts at the end of the summer to finish law school, right? Then no, thank you. But she could resist only so much. "Eventually, I wore her down," Barack wrote. "After a firm picnic, she drove me back to my apartment and I offered to buy her an ice cream at the Baskin-Robbins store across the street." It turned into an unplanned date. "We sat on the curb and ate our ice creams in the sticky afternoon heat, and I told her about working at Baskin-Robbins when I was a teenager and how it was hard to look cool in a brown apron and cap. She told me that for a span of two or three years as a child, she had refused to eat anything except peanut butter and jelly. I asked if I could kiss her."
There were secret dates afterwardâand at least one that wasn't secret. They bumped into a colleague at a movie theater. Michelle was embarrassed. But with friends outside of the law firm, she could finally open up. She called a friend from Harvard Law School, Verna Williams, to give her the news. "Guess what?" Michelle said. "I've got this great guy in my life. His name is Barack." She told Williams how it had happened, and she mentioned all the details about Barack that fascinated her. "It was clear she was pretty crazy about him." Williams remembered.
"HE WON'T BE AROUND FOR LONG"
With her family, Michelle didn't gush about Barack. She didn't share with them the things she had learned about his family, and his childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia, and his reputation at Harvard Law School. Almost shyly, she brought him to her parents' house for a family dinner. She was also setting him up to be tested. She wasn't going to sell him to her family beforehand. He had to present himself. Of course, if they didn't like him, that would be the end.
But her family had been through this before, so they had sympathy for Barack. "First impression was that he was smart, easygoing, good sense of humor," Craig remembered. "I thought, 'Too bad he won't be around for long.'" As he recalls, his parents felt the same way. "We gave it a month, tops. Not because there was anything wrong with him ... but we knew he was going to do something wrong, and then it was going to be too bad for him."
They weren't worried that Michelle might lose something special. Barack's unusual background and his education might have interested them, but Barack didn't talk about himself. They had no idea he had a white mother, and they wouldn't know for a long time. It wasn't a secret. He just never mentioned it. They didn't hear that he planned to run for a prestigious position at Harvard Law School, editor of the
Harvard Law Review,
which surely
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